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46. Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: A Discussion by Steve Sposato and Brian E. Wilson

Warning: This discussion includes major spoilers and assumes the reader has seen the entire series. Proceed at your own risk. And now let’s cue the amazing Nerf Herder theme for Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer…

Brian: I have written a few essays for Wonders in the Dark solo, but for this piece I invited my BFF (Buffy Friend Forever) Steve Sposato to join me in a Q and A about Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This groundbreaking series, set in Sunnydale, California, ran for seven seasons starting in 1997 and ending in 2003. Based on a rather goofy 1992 cult film, the show (created by the movie’s screenwriter Joss Whedon) became one of the most acclaimed ever on TV with its surprisingly potent mix of supernatural horror, comedy, romance, and emotional drama. Over seven seasons, viewers followed Buffy as she fought demons, vampires, monsters, other humans, and gods all the while trying to survive high school, then college, then life. The series became quite existential as Buffy struggled with her role as the Slayer, her loneliness increasing with each new season. Although she had a group of friends, affectionately called Scoobys by fans, attempting to help her, Buffy became angsty about being the one and only Slayer. It became apparent from the start that this series was something special, trying new things, demanding a lot from its viewers, and rising above its jokey title.

Steve: People say we’re living in a golden age of TV, which is probably true, though I think current TV is sometimes self-servingly overhyped. To the extent that this is a golden age, however, I’ve always felt this VCR-era series has been underappreciated as a key show that paved the way. It departed from most TV of its time in ways that are now taken for granted: consistent quality, season-long story arcs (the season-is-equal-to-a-novel idea), and increasingly dark and edgy storytelling, violence and death exacting a toll on the characters. It’s not a show that re-sets at the end of every episode, although it easily could have been: Buffy saves the day, all’s back to normal again. How dull that would have been.

Also, it was aired on an outsider network (the WB for the first five seasons; UPN the last two) willing to support creative risks (though not always the budget for them) in pursuit of a niche audience, pretty much the standard model today. But Buffy wasn’t a male anti-hero, so she’s often left out of the Sopranos-based definition of the new golden era (which some have argued is over, anyway).

Brian: Everything you say is true. The creators of Buffy wanted to show that every action on the series had impact on its characters. Things could not be undone. Everything accumulated, weighing down on Buffy’s shoulders by Season 7: failed romances, fraught friendships, losing her mother, financial responsibility, moral responsibility, the constant being on call as the one and only chosen Slayer. What I appreciate about the series is although we would sometimes get an angry and/or confused “I want to get away from this all” Buffy, the show ultimately didn’t make her an anti-hero. She is the hero from start to finish, even though she makes mistakes and flips out in some key episodes. When the burden is lifted from her shoulders in the series’ final episode, in the most beautiful way possible, I for one felt a sense of relief for her, that she deserved this happy resolution after 144 episodes.

With this introduction out of the way, I think it would be fun as two BFFs to choose our winners in a variety of categories.

Who Is Your Favorite Scooby (i.e. member of Buffy’s circle of friends and allies)?

Steve: As a librarian I think I have to go with Rupert Giles (played by Anthony Head), the librarian who served as Buffy’s mentor and father figure. I felt his absence in later seasons when he wasn’t around because the writers got a lot of humor out of him. Also, because he was an adult, the writers were able to pull some nice surprises out of his backstory (hints of a dark “Ripper,” for one thing). When the love interests threatened to get too soggy or the villains just threatened, Giles was the mentor helping Buffy achieve wisdom and independence. He’s often called a father figure to Buffy, which does fit in some ways, but I appreciated that there was never the slightest hint of any creepy erotic subtext in his interests in her, which was refreshing. Plus he preferred to access his ancient texts in print rather than digitally, to which I can relate.

Brian: I would have to say Xander, played with effective earnestness by Nicholas Brendan. The poor mortal always wanted to help and when the monsters would attack he would get a few good moves in…before being tossed against the wall and/or knocked out of commission. Xander is one of the most interesting working class characters I have ever seen on a series. He struggled financially, trying to escape life in his dysfunctional family’s basement. When he met Anya (Emma Caulfield), more about her soon, things finally looked up for him even though she was, you know, a reformed demon. Ah, the world of Buffy.

Favorite Vampire (non-love interest)?

Steve: “Man, I hate playing vampire towns.” Drusilla was consistently fun to watch. Juliet Landau took the mentally deranged character to the edge and beyond, so that I always perked up when she came back into town. Over the top? Sure, wonderfully so. You had to pity her since she was clearly not right in the head, but she was so dangerously evil and maliciously cruel you couldn’t really root for her for long. Plus she killed a slayer. Harmony (Mercedes McNab) was also pretty great in a completely different way. I can almost imagine a spinoff show for her: Valley Girl Vampire: What-ever!! A former high school classmate of Buffy’s, she just wasn’t cut out to be a vampire. She had no real interest in learning how to fight. But even as a comically pathetic variation on Buffy’s character, she could make you feel something for her in her failed quests. There were so many of these bit characters that evolved into regulars because the writers found opportunity everywhere.

Brian: Ooh, Drusilla and Harmony, such great characters! I have to go with a character who only figured prominently in one terrific episode, Holden Webster (nice acting from Jonathan Woodward) in “Conversations with Dead People”, one of the highlights of the otherwise uneven Season 7. A former high school classmate now turned vampire, Holden, once a psychology student, starts to analyze Buffy, demonstrating that he would have been an effective shrink. The conversation between them is witty, sharp, and ultimately heartbreaking. By the end of the episode you end up wishing Holden had been a major character all along, but then again, the fact that his presence is so fleeting adds to the overall “nothing in this world is permanent, people enter and leave our lives so quickly” message of the series.

Favorite Demon?

Brian: Oh, I love Anya, the revenge demon who steals Xander’s heart (romantically not literally–I’m clarifying because you never know with this show). I adore the way she is clueless about human behavior, that she says the wrong things, setting people off. And it is so beyond adorable that rabbits terrorize her. In the musical episode “Once More with Feeling” the characters sing about a new possible threat that has come to Sunnydale and Anya, in full Cassandra mode, imagines that the new attackers will be “BUNNIES! BUNNIES! BUNNIES!” and it’s absolutely hilarious. Anya also has one of the saddest moments in the series on “The Body” when she admits that she, as an immortal, cannot comprehend the death of Buffy’s mother because she doesn’t understand human death. She made me lose it.

Steve: I loved Anya, too. She brought so much fun and snark to the later seasons, so I’ll just add that I also liked Halfrek (Kali Rocha), Anya’s sister-in-vengeance. She popped up in the guise of a guidance counselor to coax Dawn into wishing for revenge. What high school girl could resist? Who doesn’t nurse some petty grievance that just needs a friend’s urging to fan from spark to flame? But I have to say it’s tempting to pick Clem, the peaceful, poker-playing demon who learned to give up the eating of kittens. #NotAllDemons

Best Buffy Love Interest?

Steve: Buffy’s human love interests were always so pathetic in comparison to the pointy-teethed men, so I can’t pick Riley (Mark Blucas), even if he did mope and suffer admirably at times. What can I say? “The girl needs some monster in her man.” The Spike (James Marsters) storyline was surprisingly effective, but that’s the thing: surprising only because it made viewers feel something again after the classic relationship she had with Angel (David Boreanaz). And it did so mostly by repeating the same ideas. So I have to go with Angel. That whole demon-cursed-with-a-conscience thing was pretty inspired, a monster who could fight monsters more effectively because he was one (a bit like Dexter later). When he lapsed into evil, it seemed you could never quite blame him because someone had removed his soul from him. He could commit foul deeds yet remain perversely innocent of the crimes at the same time. Buffy could never simply defeat him because there was always a chance to restore him. His whole predicament was unique, isolating, foisted upon him, and as the series progressed Buffy began to see herself in those same terms. They were born enemies yet were also kindred spirits. They performed this dance of saving each other time after time. When one was on the brink, the other pulled together no matter what and saved the day…usually. They had a profound equality despite their differences that was idealistic and beautiful. And then along came Spike.

Brian: Well, it’s hard to say I liked Spike after all the things he does on the show. He’s creepy as hell, and violent. That said, and Steve knows this about me, I’m very much an actor-driven fan. And Spike wins my vote because Marsters is so bleeping good as this punky rebel with a Billy Idol haircut. He gives the show a jolt of energy whenever he appears, and I cheered when he became a true series regular. When Spike discovers that he is falling for his archnemesis Buffy, who wants nothing to do with him, Marsters plays him as a vulnerable lovestruck puppy. He brings so much dimension to what could have been a one-note villainous character.

Best Buffy foil?

Steve: Marsters was amazing, agreed. And Spike was the main catalyst for the final two seasons. As you know about me, I’m writing-driven, so I think this foil question is fascinating. Buffy grew into such a well-rounded and compelling character because she was compared and contrasted with so many interesting characters over the seasons: Cordelia, Willow, Kendra, Angel, Giles, etc. But I think was her most dynamic foil was Faith (Eliza Dushku), the slayer who was impulsive and spontaneous to the point of recklessness, whereas Buffy was a planner. She and her team preferred to minimize risk and take the job seriously, with Buffy always insisting on sparing the innocent. Faith reveled in her power, while Buffy could sometimes wallow in her sense of responsibility. The body-switching storyline beginning with “This Year’s Girl” was a nightmare scenario that showed the Buffy creative team at their best, weaving nail-biting mini-arcs within their season-long narratives. Faith helped us understand Buffy’s inner psychology, but she wasn’t merely a device. The writers seemed equally fascinated with Faith in her own right.

Brian: Willow (beautifully played by Alyson Hannigan) always struck me as an intriguing contrast to Buffy. She’s a brainy bookworm who excels at her studies while Buffy doesn’t exactly set the world on fire academically. Yes, Buffy can deliver the kicks and knows how to work a stake, but without Willow’s ace research and IT skills, Buffy wouldn’t have survived the next monster attack. In the college episodes, Willow and Buffy start parting ways. But it’s Willow’s discovery of magic that leads to a deepening, darker conflict between the two. In Season 6 when Willow becomes an intensely powerful and vengeful witch, Buffy finds herself facing off against her former friend. For loyal fans who witnessed the highs and lows of their friendship, this became both riveting and highly disturbing.

Steve: And as with Angel, it was more interesting to have a villain who had to be saved, not just defeated. That was a brilliant twist.

Most effective villain?

Steve: Growing up? For this coming of age show, that was probably the most serious villain of the series, but ok, that answer’s a cheat. I have to go with Glory (Clare Kramer), or excuse me, Glorificus. I find the most effective villains are cut from the same cloth as the hero. Many fans disliked Glory, which I find ironic, because fans never tire of criticizing the show’s skeptics for resisting Buffy because of her name and her Valley Girl image. It’s the same bias. Glory (like Cordelia) is Buffy without the hardships and responsibilities that challenged her to mature. She’s selfish, vain and capricious. Glory terrified me not only because she has no conscience, but because after 4 seasons of vampires and demons who operated under established rules, Glory was defined as a god. She was physically stronger than Buffy and seemingly invincible. It seemed Buffy had leveled up to the boss battle at last. How does a hero cope with a problem she can’t solve? I was travelling in mid-May of 2001 after watching “Spiral,” one of the series’ most unsettling episodes, and I have to laugh now about the surprising sense of unease I carried with me until I could get home and see the story’s resolution. Ah, the long ago problems of pre-Binge TV. Now Glory’s alter-ego/brother, the handsome young medic Ben (Charlie Weber), was much less interesting, but there is something uniquely unsettling about the concept of your worst enemy being unknowingly embedded in someone so kind and nurturing.

Brian: I remember finding Glory very funny at first, but yes, on a second trip through Season 5 I could see your point: she caused a lot of harm. My personal choice? I would have to say the controversial Season 6 gave us scary and effective villains: first The Trio and then Dark Willow. The Trio were three guys led by Warren (a squirm-inducing Adam Busch), a technology wizard who could create robots such as the Buffybot (also played by Sarah Michelle Gellar). Under his spell were Jonathan (the excellent Danny Strong), a suicidal young man, and Andrew (the eventually endearing Tom Lenk), an impressionable soul crushed out on Warren. Unlike the monsters, demons, and gods who came before them, these three humans did real harm with bullets and other weapons. When the misogynistic Warren fires his gun and takes out Willow’s girlfriend Tara, all hell breaks loose. Dark Willow (Alyson Hannigan, amazingly fierce) emerges, seeking brutal revenge. Up to that point Willow was one of the show’s most humane characters, so watching her become filled with rage, justified as it was, felt truly scary. In the show’s most shocking moment, the increasingly powerful Dark Willow uses magic to flay Warren. You heard me. Flay Warren. So many moments made me gasp during Season 6, but that scene was so unexpected, especially on a commercial network series.

Best season / worst season?

Steve: Season 3 was the climax of classic Buffy but my favorite was season 5 for the way it dug for something stranger and more operatic. Yes, Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg) seemed like a cousin Oliver at first, but the twists and turns were spectacular, with a final episode that pulls everything you doubted together into a kind of perfect meaning. There wasn’t a bad season in the bunch but season 7 was surely the weakest, for all its underrated moments.

Brian: We are in perfect agreement here. I liked the first four seasons a lot (and I am still haunted by how brutal things got on Season 6), but Season 5 switched up the rules in the most audacious way possible. When Dawn first appears at the end of Season 5 Episode 1, I felt totally gaslighted. I mean, seriously, is there anything more surprising on the show than when Buffy and Dawn (never seen before this moment) both turn and say “Mom” in perfect unison? The whole season is a roller coaster ride with Buffy doubting her sanity and role in life thanks to Dawn’s presence. Throw in a scary villain (Glory) and Buffy facing challenges both financial and supernatural and you have one of the greatest seasons for any TV series. Least favorite season: without a doubt, Season 7. Sarah Michelle Gellar announced that she was leaving the show, and you can tell it threw the creators into a tizzy (although yes, her instincts were correct in retrospect). Poor Buffy had to give speech after speech to rally her troops against an approaching evil, and the series became repetitive as a result. Completely aware of the problem, one of the writers threw in a joke late in the season about Buffy giving yet…another…speech. Some strong episodes and a stirring finale, but not Buffy at its best, still better than most TV series.

And the Emmy award goes to…

The Emmy awards pretty much neglected the show. If you could retroactively award the show one Emmy, what would it be for?

Steve: I think I have to go with someone in the writers room, all these great pop geniuses like Marti Noxon, Drew Goddard, Jane Espenson. To this day when I see their names in credits my pulse quickens a little because I know I’m in for something good. When you think of the time constraints they worked under and the feats of inspiration they pulled off, it’s staggering. Joss complains from time to time about the show’s budget but with material this good it ultimately didn’t matter. (Now on the other hand, with Game of Thrones, all that money helps pave over some problems from time to time.) I guess I’d go with the script for “Conversations with Dead People” since that would officially go to Espenson and Goddard but in actuality Noxon and Whedon contributed, so it could go to all of them. And by the final season those Emmy voters really should have had time to get over themselves.

Brian: In my perfect world many of the actors would have won or at least been nominated: Gellar, Hannigan, Marsters, Head, and Caulfield. Emmy voters appeared to be putting their noses up at shows on the WB and UPN (look at how Gilmore Girls’ Lauren Graham and Kelly Bishop were ignored year after year). My choice is perhaps too obvious. If I had my way, Sarah Michelle Gellar would have won 2 Emmys for Best Actress (she was never nominated). I cannot think of another actress in a TV show asked to explore so many aspects of her character. First of all, Gellar had to make us take a Valley Girl character like Buffy seriously. She had to deftly juggle the show’s mix of tones and genres. But then creator Joss Whedon and his writing team upped the ante and gave us a world where anything could happen, where any magic spell could alter Buffy’s persona, and Gellar proved time and time again she could meet the tricky demands of each script.

This became increasingly apparent in Seasons 5 and 6. Usually actors submit one episode to Emmy voters for consideration. Season 5’s incredible “The Body” shows Buffy in a disoriented state after discovering that her mother (Joyce Sutherland) has just died of natural causes. Gellar delivers such a raw, visceral performance, and I still cannot believe the Emmys passed her by. At the end of Season 5, Buffy dies. At the start of Season 6, Willow performs a spell to bring Buffy back to life. Season 6’s “Bargaining Part 2” shows us the consequences of this. The series dares to make Buffy’s resurrection an unhappy one. Gellar is amazing as she digs her way out to the grave, looking confused, dismayed, and horrified to be back on Earth and back in the Slayer role she no longer desires. And in that same episode she also plays the Buffybot who comes to a shocking demise right before Buffy’s eyes. It’s a powerful piece of acting.

Best episode?

Steve: “The Body” is probably the most powerful, the episode I think of most when I think about the show at its height. It’s probably the most universal and doesn’t rely on the show’s mythology to make it’s impact. But if I were trying to convince a skeptic, I think I’d go with “Hush.” I know, another obvious choice. But it’s a self-contained experience that’s so self-evidently compelling and inventive that it could be aired like some kind of annual Halloween special.

Brian: OK, the musical-loving geek in me has to pick “Once More with Feeling,” the episode where a demon casts a spell on Sunnydale that causes everyone to burst into song. What I love about this particular one is that although it could be seen as a gimmicky novelty item, the episode still advances the plot, with a key revelation at the end. I like that even the extras have little musical numbers. It becomes like a supernatural Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Yes, one can easily argue that many of the actors don’t possess great singing voices (Amber Benson’s Tara and Anthony Head’s Giles croon the best), but hearing the actors sing in character adds a certain endearing quality to the whole effort. And a vulnerability, too.

Buffy successors? What is the heir to Buffy?

Steve: I haven’t spent much time with Orphan Black, but that seems like a contender. Firefly, Dollhouse obviously. So many WB superhero shows and Marvel movies. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Veronica Mars. But honestly for me nothing’s really come close in terms of originality and fun in this vein. I’m still waiting for a great successor. Buffy is considered by some to be a cult show, and that’s true to the extent that it built a universe and gave rise to a fandom, but for me it was just a great show, full stop.

Brian: A recent show that struck me as a Buffy successor is the FX series Legion. And as they did with Buffy, Emmy voters stuck their noses up at it (oh no, genre TV–ewww!). No nominations. Anyway, Legion tells of a man (Dan Stevens, kissing his Downton Abbey persona goodbye) with supernatural abilities convinced that he is paranoid schizophrenic. Although Legion has a male central character, the women on the show also shine and kick ass. The villain (I won’t spoil the surprise) struck me as the kind of villain you would find on Buffy. The series also gets into the head of its lead character, quite literally, showing us altered memories (as Buffy did when Dawn appeared). The fact that Legion didn’t receive any acting nominations (for Stevens and the wildly inventive Aubrey Plaza) probably shouldn’t surprise me, but seriously, no Technical nominations?

Steve: Wow, that was fun. And we barely scratched the surface. Thanks for inviting me!

Brian: Thanks for joining me Steve my BFF! I’m expecting that the first comment we will hear is “hey, you forgot to mention Oz (Willow’s mumbly werewolf musician ex-boyfriend played by Seth Green). And that is where you the reader come in. Feel free to mention your favorites in the categories we mentioned or create categories of your own.

Roll the end credits that climax with a monster uttering GRRRR…ARRRGH!!!

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9 Responses

Ooh, Drusilla and Harmony, such great characters! I have to go with a character who only figured prominently in one terrific episode, Holden Webster (nice acting from Jonathan Woodward) in “Conversations with Dead People”, one of the highlights of the otherwise uneven Season 7. A former high school classmate now turned vampire, Holden, once a psychology student, starts to analyze Buffy, demonstrating that he would have been an effective shrink. The conversation between them is witty, sharp, and ultimately heartbreaking. By the end of the episode you end up wishing Holden had been a major character all along, but then again, the fact that his presence is so fleeting adds to the overall “nothing in this world is permanent, people enter and leave our lives so quickly” message of the series.

Fantastic passage on Holden Webster! This back and forth is a discussion for the ages, and a loving remembrance and astute analysis of one of the television’s most wildly popular show, one that had its adherents captive in the excrutiating wait between episodes. Both Steve and Brian have give fans a reason to engage with their all-encompassing and insightful pontifications. My own favorite is also the Brian chooses: “One More with Feeling,” which interestingly enough is also the one my late, great WitD colleague and friend Allan Fish chooses. Such a splendid conversation, examining favorite characters, actors, writers, preferred seasons (and not so preferred seasons), villains, Emmy award dominance. I loved Steve’s choice fo Ruppert Giles and his fascinating qualification. This discussion is simply essential for Buffy lovers, and even the minority who are more casual fans. A real boom to this countdown and just so thrilled to have it here. Breezy and engaging from start to finish, and a labor of love.

What a splendid way to start the day – excellent work!!!! I am a huge Buffy/Angel fan and continue to marvel at how fresh and original the writing on both shows is. It’s a shame that the female-centered supernatural elements kept it from being taken seriously by awarding organizations, because honestly, there wasn’t anything on TV at the time (or at our current time) that could hold a candle to it. I have a poster of “Once More With Feeling” up in my den – I seem to have won it, though I don’t remember how – and every time I look at it, I remember Willow and Tara walking in the park, with Tara joking about being “cured” of her lesbianism, only to have an afternoon of passion with Willow. I agree that SMG gave an incredible, sustained performance, with so many indelible moments that linger in my memory. And the humor of calling the hellmouth Sunnydale is one for the ages. So much to say, so little time. Thank you, thank you, thank you for doing this outstanding series justice.

Wow! Guys thank you so much for this. Hulu is running the series now, so I will rewatch and catch up. The later episode got lost in my growing up and moving to other stuff. Yet I have always been a fan. And yeah where the heck is Oz, I had a mad crush on him… I actually know his mother. ( Seth Green)
Through the years I have come across workshops and or classes on the themes the Hero’s journey using Buffy’s battles with good vrs evil.
So I am going to binge watch Buffy and the gang while taking much of what you have shared into that experience!

Love the way you used the back-and-forth conversation/interview as a way of bringing out all your thinking on this, one of the founding, cornerstone shows to introduce the current Golden Age we are smack-dab in the middle of.

When we were dating, my now-wife asked me to watch the show. She was already a die hard fan and had seen the whole series several times. I’d seen nothing. We started from episode one and I made fun of every single show for the first two seasons, mocking the effects, correctly predicting the next line, and generally making her crazy. But she persisted, perhaps because she knew what would happen – it would grow on me. And it did. A lot of what I didn’t like from the start remained, but what was great about the show emerged and stayed. The end of season 5 was one of the best, most satisfying endings of any series I’d ever seen. And then they forced season 6 on me. Stuck with it, and got another great series ender at the end of 7 for all my troubles. I now humbly recognize it for what it is – among the most creative, engaging, and well written shows of its kind in all of television.

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